Sunday, 29 November 2015

Looted fund is being returned through CBN- Femi Adesina

According to Punch, public funds that have been returned by some past
government officials who looted the treasury while in power are
currently with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari during an interactive session he had with
members of the Nigerian community in the Islamic Republic of Iran had
previously said that some past government officials who stole public
funds had started returning parts of their loot voluntarily. However, he did not disclose the identities of the
former government officials who have so far returned parts of the looted
fund or the amount returned to the public treasury.

Punch however, revealed that the returned loot is with the CBN, although
the amount could not be immediately ascertained at the time of filing
their report.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi
Adesina, confirmed that the looted fund was being returned to government
coffers through the CBN.

He said:

“The looted fund is being returned through CBN. Only the bank can speak
on the procedure, and how much has been returned so far.”

“The President has not made a declaration on whether those who returned money voluntarily would still be prosecuted or not.”

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, told journalists at Friday’s
Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting in Abuja that the govt
hasn't specified how much has been returned. She said:

“There is no figure on the funds being returned yet. The process is
ongoing. When it is completed and the accounts are available, they would
be returned to where they were stolen from. We haven’t come to that
yet.”